Club Cricket

Saturday morning dawned cold, grey and damp – so naturally it was a cricket day…. After walking the dog, returning library books (mine, not the dog’s), doing the food shop and trying to stop the cat from eating my porridge – all things I’m sure Jonny Bairstow doesn’t have to contend with before keeping wicket for England – I headed off for a home game.

Saturday again was a dry one for us - in contrast to the start of last season - even if the temperature could have done with being a few degrees higher. This fact seemed to escape my son Josh however, as he turned up for the 4th team game wearing shorts - clearly doesn't feel the cold as much as his old man!

Sunday 30th April saw us open our league campaign with a home match against Stirling County. With the usual early season difficulties of getting a full team it saw us go with a very junior side with 5 U16s making up the first XI.

Newcomers Alford start their Readers Lincolnshire ECB Premier League campaign on Saturday with a visit to Louth who will be testing out the skills of their latest overseas signing - Namibian Xander Pitchers who was a member of his country's U19 team and has played regularly in UK Premier Leagues over the past few years.

It was a landmark milestone for cricket in Malta this week as the Malta Cricket Academy played their first ever representative matches against the David Byas Cricket Academy from Yorkshire, UK. Byas is a former captain and coach of Yorkshire County Cricket Club while the local juniors themselves were guided by Darren Scott (ex-Kent county professional cricketer, Level 3 coach and PE teacher).

The weekend also saw our NatWest Cricket Force weekend in progress, when a number of members helped get the ground ready for the start of the season - at the moment, everything looks wonderful at the club.